Reviewing and Editing the Draft

The workspace is where a draft becomes your report. Everything is editable; every edit is an overlay on the engine's draft, so revert is always available and the audit log records what changed.

1. Review tab: the prose

The executive summary's three fields (general description, findings and opinions, recommendations for further study) and each system section's three fields (description, observations and analysis, recommendations) are text areas. Type directly. A field you have changed shows an edited mark with a revert link. Each system's condition rating is a drop-down next to its heading; changing it updates the systems summary.

The right column carries the Checks panel (errors in red block approval; warnings and prose findings in amber do not), the reviewer checklist keyed to E2018-24 section 11, and the running totals.

2. Tables and data tab: the numbers

Table 1 lists every deficiency with editable title, category (immediate, short-term or long-term), life-safety flag, quantity, unit and unit cost. The unit-cost control offers your firm's library entries, "engineer to provide", or a typed dollar figure, which is recorded as provided by the reviewing engineer. Remove drops a line (restore brings it back); Add item creates a deficiency you found that the draft missed. Totals, the systems summary and the checks recompute as you type; nothing is saved until you click Save edits.

Table 2 lists every reserve component with editable installed year, RUL opinion, quantity, unit, unit cost and an exclusion reason. Entering an RUL opinion overrides the table arithmetic and the basis sheet says so. Add component adds a reserve line from the useful-life table.

Below the tables, the deficiency detail lists each item's description, significance, remedy and source as drafted, for reference while editing.

3. Photographs tab

Every uploaded photograph with its caption, assigned system and an in report toggle. Recaption, move a photograph to the right system, or exclude it; the appendix and the section references renumber. Photographs flagged as showing a person are excluded by default and marked; include one only after looking at it.

4. Preview tab

The rendered report, as the PDF will look, with saved edits applied. Save first; the preview reads from the database.

5. Save, then approve

Save edits persists the overlay. The draft PDF button renders the current state with the watermark. When the checklist is complete and the Checks panel shows no errors, type your name and Approve and sign. After approval the report is locked; to change it, draft a new version from the job page.

What the engine will and will not do for you

It will rebuild every derived figure when you change an input. It will not change your judgment: a condition rating, an RUL opinion, a life-safety flag or a category stays where you put it. If a total in the summary prose no longer matches the tables after an edit, the Checks panel flags the stale number so you can fix the sentence.